Cops to Shame Prostitutes by Live-Tweeting Sting

In a move that should be seen as slut-shaming of epic proportions, Maryland cops plan to live-tweet a brothel sting operation with the hope of shaming the prostitutes involved.The Vergequotes a post from Maryland's Prince George's Police Department Facebook and website that explains their thinking:

We won't tell you when or where, other than it's somewhere in the county sometime next week. The PGPD's Vice Unit will conduct a prostitution sting that targets those soliciting prostitutes and we'll tweet it out as it happens. From the ads to the arrests, we'll show you how the PGPD is battling the oldest profession. Suspect photos and information will be tweeted. We're using this progressive, and what we believe unprecedented, social media tactic to warn any potential participants that this type of criminal behavior is not welcome in Prince George's County.

While the police have had mixed results with social media in general (remember #myNYPD?), this hard-edged move is a deliberate attempt to use social media to their advantage. The fact that suspects who haven't been convicted yet will effectively be tarred and feathered publicly doesn't seem to bother the PGPD—it's the whole point of the initiative. Even so, seeing as the initial Facebook post has been taken down, the police may be reconsidering their decision. Then again, their blog post is still up, so maybe not.